disaster

So after an initially fantastic 24 hours in Bilbao, disaster has struck. I spent the night in a hostel in Bilbao Old Town and slept poorly due to jet lag and people coming and going through the dorm room in the night. I got up at about 6am to go for a stroll outside as the sun was rising and some time between leaving the hostel and getting back, my travel wallet with my credit and debit cards, ID, and passport as well as cash went missing from my backpack. I have no idea how this was stolen while I was walking around in the early hours however I did have my headphones in and my guess is someone very silently snuck it out of my pack during my walk.

This was followed by hours of walking over the city, making a police statement, cancelling my passport and credit card, trying many strategies to organise urgent cash delivery from home (thanks Mum and Dad) - none of which was working as I have no ID with which to bring to a bank for a wire transfer. Luckily the hostel was able to help out by accepting a Mastercard payment from Australia and giving me the amount in cash. So now I’ve managed to book an Airbnb using a parent's credit card and have enough for dinner and food tomorrow.

Im absolutely exhausted, and have had a sore throat since yesterday that I'm praying isnt a harbinger of tertiary COVID, and am feeling pretty down in the dumps overall. The plan at this stage is Airbnb tonight, a bus to Madrid tomorrow, followed by hopefully an emergency Australian passport a few days later and the possibility of commencing the hike by the end of the week.